One of the main reasons I love living in Brighton is the food – it’s a bloody vegan haven, and I’ve eaten so much amazing food in the 6 weeks alone I’m glad I have to walk up a hill home to balance it all out!

I had a few fave places prior to moving but have since found new haunts from recommendations and stumbling across cafes mid-hanger, and I’ve found even more places since writing this so you can bet that this is part one of a very long list of recommendations – grab your maps and start pinning these locations for your next visit.

Coffee, Light Bites, and Brunch

Let’s start with coffee – I personally don’t drink coffee but this is going off what others have said and also my hot chocolate ratings; if you like a locally roasted cup of something, Small Batch Coffee is your best bet – they roast everything locally and sell their own blends in store, plus they have some fab vegan sandwiches and treats to have alongside. Their hot chocolate is more on the milky side for me, but they have a great array of vegan options so I’m always satisfied.

Flour Pot Bakery is another Brighton institution with amazing hot drinks and snacks – their vegan section is a little lacking in the sweet area, but they have some vegan sandwiches and rolls which are nice for lunch. For me, Flour Pot does the best hot chocolate as it’s thick and full of flavour, so is my usual pick come the colder months, but the best part of Fluor Pot is their freshly baked bread – their sourdough is perfection!

Not pictured but equally great is Black Mocha, just at the top of the Laines which serves a wide variety of vegan and non-vegan bites, cakes, and coffees. Their hot chocolate is made with very dark chocolate and water which is an interesting but very delicious combo, and they have some FAB vegan lunch options!

Now for some more light bites, and if you fancy chips on another level (because when don’t you want chips on the beach?) then I give you BeFries, a Belgian fries experience with a huge array of sauces that you will be double dipping for days (sorry). It’s purely fries here, and if you eat in, you will be treated to a sauce experience aka you are presented with a paddle full of sauces and they’ll keep them coming once you’re done! The garlic mayo and basil mayo are my faves, and now I am hungry – why don’t you delivery BeFries?!

If a more substantial meal is on your mind, then head to Hove and visit the I gigi cafe, where they serve the thickest bread slices ever, make a delicious looking Welsh Rarebit, and also have a lovely homeware store beneath to browse after. It’s the perfect brunch spot to people watch on the street below, and the cake display alone will make you drool.

Pizza, Sandwiches, basically CARBS

Pizza has become my #1 since moving, and my lord does Brighton have some good pizza – especially vegan! My pizza ranking is very strict, and I’ve got a little bit of something for everyone…

Firstly I should mention Purezza which is Brighton’s plant-based vegan pizza and carb experience; they’ve just opened in London and are the main place to go for everything dairy-free. I’ve only had one pizza and two sides from here, and tbh I wasn’t wowed in comparison to the following options I’m going to suggest – it’s pretty pricey, the pizza I had didn’t really have flavour which isn’t that hard to achieve in vegan food, and it was a bit average all round. Of course, there are others who have raved and loved the flavours, and I’m happy to be proven wrong in the future, but there are some much better priced and flavourful options to chose from.

Take Pizzaface for example – firstly, they are on Deliveroo which is great, and they have probably the widest range of topping combos to suit all diets. There are 5 vegan pizzas (my fave is Thom Yorke) and it’s a good balance of thin base and chewy crust, plus everything tastes fresh and flavourful. My big fave however is the garlic bread, holy smokes is that on another level!! It’s super thick, very garlicky with a touch of rosemary, and they do a vegan cheese option – massive score!

I think my potentially fave pizza is Fatto a Mano, because omg the crust on these pizzas is like a meal in itself – super doughy, super carby, super yummy. I don’t know anyone who eats a whole pizza from Fatto in one go, because they are massive and for the price it’s a big win, plus in the Hove branch they put potatoes on the pizza if you ask, which is even more amazing that you’d imagine. It’s only local to Brighton, and the everyone who works there is Italian, so it’s a true pizza experience you can’t miss.

Squeezing in something that isn’t pizza, if you like fancy toasties, acai bowls, mezze boards and more, then head to Larder for lunch – it’s a small family run cafe/kitchen which serves great toasted sandwiches at an affordable price, and has a very varied plant-based menu. If you work locally too, it’s a great takeout option also.

Finally there’s the new Cosmic Pizza launch at The West Hill Tavern, which serves homemade versions of your fave 2-for-1 takeaway pizza place and also offers a bottomless pizza brunch – um yes plz? I went to the launch a few weeks ago and had a slice or two of one of the vegan options (also tried my first jackfruit, it was delish), and they were very filling indeed so good to share on a hanging Sunday. A big shoutout however does to their homemade vegan doughnuts with fresh jam – they’re a serious glow up on the ol’pier offerings, so maybe even go just for doughnuts 😉

Speaking of….

Sweet treats, aka all the cake and doughnuts you could imagine

Give me the option of sweet or savoury and 9.5/10 I’ll go for garlic bread because I love me some carbs, but Brighton has the widest range of treats I’ve ever seen and not a single one has disappointed me yet.

As we were talking doughnuts, you need to swing by Glazed for one of their cool creations; I’ve had the peanut butter oreo flavour and the raspberry offering, both deliciously flavourful in their own way, but the standout is the dough mixture which tastes just as good (if not better) than regular doughnuts. The team let me take a photo of their flavour list which is in daily rotation, and you can expect everything from Pumpkin Spice to Elderflower throughout the year.

If doughnuts aren’t your jam, then my latest discovery will have a treat for you. Our Cornish Pasty Shop isn’t the first place to come to mind for cakes and such, but they have one of the best vegan cakes and bakes selection I’ve ever seen – I’m talking Lemon Meringue Pie, Oreo Slices, Brownies, Peanut Butter Toffee cake…I could do on, but now I’m hungry. Seriously, grab a selection and head to the beach because these are too good to miss.

Another final cake stop to make that also serves great tea and coffee is The Plant Room, which stocks a range of homemade cakes and Glazed doughnuts too – we’ve had Apple Crumble cake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Bread, and a glorious Victoria Sponge, so yeah, you won’t find a bad cake in this town.

I’m sure part 2 will be coming real soon, so don’t mind me whilst I walk a few more hills to balance out the pizza and doughnuts coming my way – Brighton I bloody love you!

x

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Lauren

Brighton based Photographer, photographing your fave bloggers by day and testing the best vegan/cruelty-free skincare by night.